Are we having fun? Yes! !!
But this place is just soooo wierd. We gape, we stare, we step back, we wonder why. It's so not-even-close to what we know as "normal" that you can't even really get "cross", you just are befuddled and almost smile at the "strangeness" of it all. In fact, we often have belly laughs (when we're on our own!).
And you know, it's not only the telephone guy coming around or the wait in the dentist's open-plan waiting room... it's also just walking the streets, catching trains, buying something at the shops, the food (!), playing at the park with the kids. EVERYTHING is so different! So it feels! Some people do get really down about it - so we've heard - but so far, we're doing well and kind of enjoying the oddness. Life here reminds me a bit of "Dessigual".
I mean, who wears gloves up to their armpits in 40degree weather? Who wears a mask while driving alone in a car with no one else to infect? Who drives a scooter wearing a big floppy straw hat under a pith helmet (yes, we saw that today...an elderly lady bent over at the shoulder kind of stooping over her handlebars and zooming through the traffic with her HEAD). Who pushes their cats/dogs around in a special baby pram (at least that's new for me!)? Who wears peak caps with a kind of visor pulled down to their chin (a Star Wars Darth-Vader look alike - nearly!). All these things and millions more!
The first time I gave my impression of Tokyo I remember writing that there weren't so many traffic jams. Wrong. There are plenty.
So we're finding all the MANY differences very amusing - still. And there are plenty of things to be admired: very service-orientated at the shops; the trains are perfectly reliable, punctual, plentiful (every 3minutes), fast. Crowded? It depends on the time and line. But generally, yes! Well, there are 42m people in the area who need carting around.
Having said all this, I would say, our biggest challenge here is communication. Very few speak English. And when they do, it is with such a STRONG accent that only about 2/3 into the short conversation do you realise that they're speaking English. It's hard to understand them. But I'm sure our ears will tune in to that with time and practice. Besides that, my communication with other mothers at the pool/park is just "Hello/Konnichiwa". I can introduce names now and say how old the children are (and how much they weigh...not that that's terribly useful information to a mother at the pool!) ;-)
Anyway. We're enjoying the "ride" and are confident it will get better as we go.
x
